Even then Sybil sometimes ventured to
deceive him.
Short, although not quite so short as Carrissima, she had a thickset
but flat figure, and a conscientious objection to make her
drabbish-coloured hair appear more plentiful than it was.
Her skin was rather florid, her light blue eyes were prominent, her
features being the only part of her with any approach to boldness. A
kind of amateur ministering angel, she was often appealed to--and never
in vain--by those in illness or affliction. Sybil Clynesworth was one
of the women (not so rare as might be imagined in these days) into
whose calculations the idea of marriage had seldom or never entered.
Perhaps her powerful maternal instinct had been diffused from her youth
up, and she regarded all who were in bodily or spiritual need as her
children. It will be seen that she had a large family!
It seems probable that Sybil's charitable inclinations were inherited
from her father and Jimmy's; since this half-brother of hers might be
said to share them in a secret, shamefaced way. But with the
difference that while the one took life with profound seriousness, the
other appeared to look upon it as a huge jest.
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